


The Best Comfort

by stuckonstories99



Category: Captain America (Movies), Runaways (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Comfort, Gen, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda AU, My First Fanfic, Survivor Guilt, comforting!Bucky, grieving for loss, how do you tag, in which Bucky & Molly are best friends, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-18
Updated: 2015-03-18
Packaged: 2018-03-18 12:29:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3569756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stuckonstories99/pseuds/stuckonstories99
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Molly Hayes has been living as the Avengers charge for a few months. The pain of loss is still fresh, but instead of locking herself away like usual, she turns to her good friend, Bucky, for comfort</p>
<p>Part of my AU of one-shots where Molly is the only survivor of the final  battle between the Runaways and their parents and she is taken in by the Avengers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Best Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of my AU where everything is the same except the other Runaways, with the exception of Molly, are killed in the final battle with the Pride and Molly is picked up by the other Avengers where Shield recommends they look after her as her charge.

You okay, Mol?" a concerned as usual Bucky asked. Molly slumped next to him on the old couch Steve and Clint brought in (sincerest gratitude to Hulk for destroying the previous one). 

"I'm fine", the small girl replied. Least she was small in Bucky's eyes. He scooted a little closer to her. "You sure? You look a little down, Kiddo". Molly looked up at him, biting her lip.

Bucky knew that face. She was at odds with herself, internally trying to decide if telling him what was up would be a good idea, something she usually did in more light-hearted situations, like trying to decide if sharing this or that bit of info to him or the others would lead to one of them using it against her in some prank or a joke to tell their superhero colleagues. Most of the time these little pranks and jabs were Clint’s doing.

This time, it was obvious that she was clearly upset about something. Bucky was ready to listen, of course. "C'mon", he lightly coaxed, "you can tell me…”. He trailed off as he noticed that she was on the verge of tears.

Ah, crying. Bucky had never been that great with comforting crying people, at least not like he used to be. Molly wiped away the tears before they fell, and scooted away from Bucky. “Nevermind, okay?" she muttered, voice almost a whisper. Bucky frowned. So she was going to play it off then. “Molly…”, he began to say. 

"I'm fine", she interrupted abruptly. Now there was a hint of anger in her voice. Bucky sighed. He was used to her trying to shut everyone out and pretend that everything was okay and fine and get angry about it if people kept questioning. After everything that happened to her, and after what he had personally been through, he couldn't really blame her. 

Still, after the close friendship they had built up, he felt it was sort of his duty to be there for her and find out what’s wrong. The dangers of bottling up your feelings out-weighed the risk of telling someone about them. He recalled that Natasha had said something like that...

“Look, kid”, he sighed. “You can tell me anything. Doesn’t have to go any further than this room”. He glanced up at the ceiling. “And uh, Jarvis too. You wouldn’t tell anyone, right Jarvis?”

“Affirmative, sir”, Jarvis’s disembodied voice replied. 

“See? You can tell us anything”. He gave her a knowing look. “Unless, you know, it’s something you want to talk to Natasha about…”. After all, if it had something to do with puberty or her body in general, she might be more comfortable talking to another female. And if Natasha didn’t seem like a good idea to her, then she could always ask Pepper or call up Darcy.

Molly sniffled. “It’s just that…”, she cut herself off, not sure of what to say next. Bucky wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulder. He wasn’t exactly sure what to say next either, but he recalled that during his memory recovery when Steve was at a loss for words, he’d always put a comforting arm around his shoulder, and sometimes, that helped more than any words could. 

Tears began to fall from Molly’s eyes again and this time, she didn’t bother to wipe them. “I-I, I just miss my friends!” she cried, burying her face into her hands and sobbing.

Now Bucky was really at a loss for words. Regaining his ability to show real empathy and other emotions towards people had taken almost as long as regaining his memories had, and he was still remembering little things every day. He supposed, as far as showing empathy and comfort goes, that he was doing a great job, but now, Molly was crying, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do. 

Molly continued to sob loudly as her body shook. Bucky made a quick resolve on what to do. He pulled the young girl into his arms and hugged her tightly. he supposed that hugs made just as big of a difference as words. Still, couldn’t hurt to say a few comforting things to her. “It’s gonna be okay, sweetheart”, he soothed. He began rubbing comforting circles into her back, just like Steve and even Natasha had done to him during his difficult times. Boy, if either of them saw him now…

Molly pulled away a bit. “I’m s-sorry”, she whimpered, tears still falling. “I’m sorry for c-crying like some little baby, but I just…”. Bucky cut her off. “Hey, hey, crying doesn't make you a baby, okay? I could write a book full of the names of adults I’ve seen crying. Doesn’t make em’ any less of a man or woman and certainly doesn't make em’ not a baby”. He wasn’t sure if her could really remember all those people’s names, but Darcy was definitely going to be in that book. Just watch how she gets when she watches ‘Up’. 

The girl let him wipe away her tears with his flesh hand. “I just miss my friends so much, Bucky”, she blubbered. “I know”, Bucky replied. “I know”. And how could she not? Not only did she lose her parents on that fateful day that she and her ragtag team of runaways decided to take on their evil parents, but she lost said team as well. Bucky was at least grateful, that her friends last true act of heroism was getting their youngest member out alive before it all blew to hell.

And now here she was, lone survivor of that night. When Steve and a few loyal Shield agents found her on the beach, Steve made the call to bring her back to Avengers Tower. She didn’t resist at all, probably because for most of the ride back home, she was half-asleep from the events of that night. When she got to the tower, Steve and Natasha had the unfortunate task of explaining what had happened to her friends. At first she didn’t believe them. What kid wants to believe that the friends she had grown-up with and known all her life were dead along with her parents. Didn’t take long for it to sink in. She locked herself in her room the first few days, only coming out to make a quick trip to the bathroom and grab a plate of food Pepper would kindly leave on outside her door. 

 

Eventually, she would come out and stay out more often and the guys did their best to comfort her. It helped a great deal. She eventually began to opened up more and in the coming weeks, she joined them in their mid-week movie night. Darcy would come over and take her shopping for clothes and other things and Thor would tell her stories about Asgard.   
She seemed to gravitate toward Bucky however. Their friendship started simply enough: “Hey, you’re Bucky Barnes, I saw you in the Smithsonian”, and the rest was history.

 

Occasionally, she would shut herself away from the others, privately expressing remorse about her friends and crying. During those times, Natasha would silently come in and sit with her, never saying a would, but offering a comforting shoulder to cry on. Another case where actions speak louder than words.

Now, however, maybe it was time for some words.

Molly shook her head. “Why, Bucky? Why? They didn’t deserve to die. Not even traitor Alex. None of them deserved that. They, t-they...” She broke out sobbing once more. Bucky hugged her a bit tighter. “You’re absolutely right, Kid”, was his response. “They didn’t deserve it”.

“It’s not fair”, Molly whimpered, calming down a bit. Bucky patted her back softly. “It’s not fair at all”, she continued. “And I know I sound childish because life isn’t fair either, but I just want them back”.

Bucky loosened his grip on her as she sat up to look him in the eye. “I, I’m sorry Bucky. You’ve got like 100 years worth of problems and here I am worrying you about this”. Bucky resisted the urge to smirk. 100 years? Biologically he was in his mid nineties. Just how old did she think he was? “Hey, we’re friends, remember? Whatever is bothering or hurting you is my concern and if I can, I want to help you with it”. 

Molly managed a watery smiled before shifting in her sitting position a bit so that she was sitting right next to her ‘old’ friend. “Really? We’re still friends? I thought I would have annoyed you by now”, she said with a small chuckle. Bucky smiled. “I’m already best friends with punk Steve. I think I can handle annoying Princess Powerful”. 

He handed her a tissue so she could wipe her remaining tears away. “Thank you, Bucky”, she said, giving him a bear hug yet being careful not to hug him too hard. She didn’t want to repeat what happened with Thor. 

“You’re welcome, sweetheart”, Bucky replied as he return the hug. They stayed like that for a few minutes before Molly pulled away and asked, “what do you wanna do now?”  
Bucky thought a moment. “Hmm. How about, whatever you want?”

The team’s young charge beamed. “Disney karaoke it is”, she announced. In one swift action, she grabbed him by the hand and lead him down the hell to her room.

And that’s how it went from then on. Molly began opening up about her feelings to the others, they’d be there as a shoulder for her to cry on, share some comforting words, and then spend some one-on-one time with her. It took time, but little by little, she was becoming her old self again. Bucky was just happy to see that she wasn’t retiring to her room to deal with things by herself anymore. 

And Molly? She was just happy to have such wonderful new friends --- with the exception of Clint, who she had a particular vendetta against this weekend. Bucky and the guys only laughed. Sometimes your actions helped, sometimes your words. But when it came to Molly, sometimes the best comfort for a grieving heart was some serious butt-kicking.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! This was my first finished story, ever. I'd really appreciate some constructive criticism and any helpful tips from any of you.


End file.
